We’re going back to the ballpark next Tuesday, September 15 when the O’s host the Tampa Bay Rays.

Who’s going, you ask?

Well, I know I’m going. I hope YOU’RE going as well.

In fact, WNST is going to try and drag a bunch of you downtown next Tuesday night to take advantage of $1.00 tickets and to help generate some funds for The Right Side Foundation, the organization recently started by Nick Markakis and his wife, Christina.

Let’s face facts, here. Some of this stuff is going to sting a little bit, but there’s no sense in beating around the bush or sugar-coating anything. With that in mind, I won’t do either.

Someone has to buy these $1.00 tickets they’re peddling. The crowds for weeknight September baseball look more like old Skipjacks crowds. To say “no one is going” would be kind.

That’s where we come in.

Let’s buy ’em all up…even more if we can…and go down to the ballpark next Tuesday night and enjoy ourselves.

Time for more honesty here: This Sunday at around 1:06 pm when that first football gets kicked in the air at M&T Bank Stadium, the baseball season in Baltimore is kaput. Finished. Done. Over with. The O’s could throw back to back perfect games next Tuesday and Wednesday against the Rays and no one in town would notice.

But we have ONE WEEK to get as many people as possible together to go down to the baseball stadium next Tuesday night and offer a farewell until next spring. Despite their horrible record and diminished REAL attendance figures (again), there ARE some bright spots in the organization and the handful of young players they entrusted their team to this year have provided some highlights and refreshing, encouraging moments. Let’s go down there next Tuesday and say “Thanks” to Nolan Reimold, Felix Pie, Brian Matusz, Chris Tillman, Matt Wieters, Brad Bergesen, et al. After all, it’s not THEIR fault the O’s didn’t add any quality free agent pitchers in the off-season or a big bat to make the ’09 campaign more tolerable.

The young kids deserve a night where we go out en masse and say “Thank You”.

Let’s give it to them next Tuesday night.

Here’s the ONLY catch — the O’s, unfortunately, do play a key role in this endeavor.

How?

They have to sell us the tickets for $1.00, per the advertisements they’ve been running for the last three weeks or so.

We might wind up with 81 tickets sold. We might wind up with 184. We might wind up with 633. However many we actually wind up selling, they have to honor that number.

And I don’t mean to sound harsh here, but we – our group from WNST – will only be paying $1.00 for each ticket. We’re not paying a ticket service charge and we’re not paying the postal service or some overnight company for delivering them to us. We’re not giving ANYONE any money except the Orioles ($1.00) and Nick Markakis’ foundation ($1.00).

You’ll be able to sign up at WNST.net today via PayPal. You’ll pay $2.00, period. $1.00 gets you a ticket to the game and the other $1.00 will go to Markakis’ foundation and we’ll hand deliver that check to him on Tuesday.

Obviously, the O’s are going to have waive the ticket service charge (which you would have to pay if you booked the $1.00 ticket through them) but, in return, we’re bringing folks to the game and giving their star rightfielder money for his Foundation.

And, please, I don’t want to hear any Who-Struck-John? about how “we can’t sell you the tickets for just a dollar…we have to include the service charge.” No, you don’t. Remember, I SOLD tickets for a living.” You’re not going to be able to lie to me on this one. You just create a new code in the ticket computer and make it a $1.00 “group ticket” and it’s done.

The ticket price is $1.00, as advertised, and we’re more than willing to pay $1.00 per-seat.

No disrespect intended here, but I haven’t heard any of the other all sports stations or shows in town putting together an “O’s Night” that includes a charitable donation for these $1.00 promotional nights.

Oddly, though, I’ve heard ALL of the all sports stations in town take a check from the O’s in the form of advertising the $1.00 tickets for September/October.

We’re not on the advertising buy (ha ha) but we’ll go ahead and do the work anyway and bring folks to the game.

Someone has to do it, I suppose — and we know who’s NOT doing it in town. And they know too.

So, WNST is going back to the ballpark.

We’re not walking out (although I might leave early if the O’s are losing 10-3 in the 7th inning…I DO get up awfully early, remember) and this is NOT “Free The Birds” related.

We’re going to an Orioles game next Tuesday night.

We hope you’ll come with us.

The message we’re sending, actually, is eerily reminiscent of the message we displayed at Free The Birds back on September 21, 2006. “We’re here. We love baseball. We love the Orioles. But we want the team to get better. And, if you do that, we’ll come back to the ballpark more often.” That was the message on 9/21/06 and it will be the game message on 9/15/09. “We’re still here. We told you we would be. We’d come to more games if the team was competitive and the fans were treated right.”

Let’s get together next Tuesday and cheer on the young players who have endured a painful first season in the big leagues.

Let’s assemble for a night and have fun.

It’s been a while since we had a good time at a baseball game.

Let’s do it on Tuesday night.

We’re going to have a BLAST during the football season, I think everyone agrees on that.